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Paul Bunyan and Other Big Things

A few posts ago, I mentioned that April and I had penchant for searching for “World’s Biggest [insert random object here]”–well, this trip was filled with them! I mean, how else are you going to break up a long road trip?

sidenote: now that I’m thinking about it, Minnesota and Australia seem to have a large number of “World’s Biggest” objects. And I would also like to express my personal belief that if you’ve never seen the World’s Biggest Prawn in Ballina, NSW Australia, your life really is never going to be completely whole. Of course, you could disagree with me, but well….you’d be wrong.

Anyway, back to Minnesota and this trip. April had already marked out several stops to see big things, such as the World’s Biggest Walleye.

However, this turned out to be a BIG FAT LIE. It’s not the biggest. We have actually seen one bigger (ha! that’s what she said!!). It was on my first trip to Minnesota years ago.

see? this one is A LOT bigger!

We also stopped to see the World’s Largest Hockey Stick.

I’m not arguing this point…it’s dangerous to even talk about hockey in Minnesota unless you’ve grown up there (or Canada) and since I grew up in neither place, I respectfully abstain from commenting…except to say that is also the biggest hockey puck I’ve ever seen.

While it took a bit of a detour and it’s hard to see the scale, this is apparently the World’s Largest Loon. It didn’t appear to be anchored, but of course, it could have just been on a really long line (The World’s Longest, perhaps?).

I’ve already shown you the large lumberjack–again, not the biggest in the world but pretty darn big–and Smokey the Bear, which was the largest Smokey I’ve seen…does a bigger one exist? I’m not entirely sure. But if it does, then that’s one biiiiiiiiiiig bear. And that’s all I have to say about that.

The highlight of this trip (in terms of World’s Biggest objects) was Paul Bunyan and Babe. As long as I’ve been visiting Minnesota, I’ve been trying to track this elusive legend and his blue ox [click here for the story!]. We got close on my first trip, but…something didn’t seem quite right. Perhaps it was the blatant advertising for the bowling alley that shared its parking lot with the Minnesota icons?

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t imagine Paul Bunyan and Babe bowling with anything so…small…

This trip was totally different. As soon as we pulled up, we knew it was the real deal. Paul Bunyan and Babe. My quest at last was over–and in the process–a few more World’s Largest objects added to my collection!

One thought on “Paul Bunyan and Other Big Things”

I’d just like to add an update: April reminded me that we only visited a large floating loon in this post; the largest floating loon lives in Virginia. I mean, it’s so hard keeping large floating loons straight these days. Much like Grandma having to run down all the grandchildren’s names before she gets to the right kid.

April also reminded me that we visited the world’s largest FREESTANDING hockey stick. This, of course, piqued my curiosity and almost immediately I googled “world’s largest hockey stick.”

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s largest hockey stick is 205 feet long, weighing in at 62,000 pounds! It was commissioned by the Canadian Federal Government for the 1986 Expo in Vancouver. It now resides at the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan, Vancouver Island, Canada. April suggest that the freestanding label is “perhaps how we avoid size fights with the Canadians???”

Pics by April

April is my wanderlust alter ego, who is infinitely a much better photographer than I am. Anytime you see the Category PICS BY APRIL, that means the pics in the post were taken by the fabulous April. Bow to her brilliance :)